Jenny and Lilly swept into the waiting room, both pausing the moment they saw the two male agents sat side by side, tears streaming down Tony's face while Tim spun his cell end to end in his hands. Lilly quickly closed the gap before slowly, so as not to startle him too much, laying her hand on Tim's shoulder. He jumped and looked up before immediately standing and embracing her tightly.

"Hey." She soothed gently. "How is she?" Tim took a moment just to breathe her in before pressing a kiss to her shoulder.

"LJ's okay. Mild concussion cuts and bruises. They're keeping her in overnight for observation." She nodded against him, fingers trailing soothingly through the short hairs at the nape of his neck. He lifted his head to gently kiss her cheek before untangling himself and going to stand beside Jenny who was almost pulling off casual as she leant against the wall beside the door. "Director." Tim greeted. Jenny smiled hesitantly.

"Who?" She didn't need to elaborate. The look on Tony's face said it all.

"Pennie." Jenny nodded, guilt threatening to drown her as she felt relief flood her system at the news it wasn't one of her own.

"Ziva, Jethro?" Tim's face fell as he ran a weary hand across his face.

"Zi's still in there. He cracked a couple of her ribs, fractured her cheek bone, and gave her a grade three concussion. She's covered in bruises." Jenny gulped. "Gibbs hasn't left her side."

"Yes, well, would you leave Lilly's?" Tim looked back at her in confusion, not following the parallel. You could see the moment he got it.

"I, I didn't know." Jenny turned curious eyes on him.

"How? You work with them all day." Tim chuckled self-deprecatingly.

"I knew she was happier than I'd ever seen her. Never twigged it was Gibbs is all." Jenny nodded just the once in understanding. "And no." She looked confused again. "I wouldn't leave her side."

It was several hours later when Gibbs finally emerged, his eyes bloodshot, tear tracks no one would ever mention coating his cheeks. Tony was asleep, slumped in the hospital chair, murmuring Pennie's name every few minutes, obviously dreaming about her. Tim and Lilly were sat a few chairs down, one of Tim's hand resting on the curve of her waist, the other stroking her hair almost absentmindedly as she slept, her head nestled safely in his lap. Jenny rose to greet her old friend as he entered the room.

"How is she?" She asked mutedly, very aware of the two sleeping adults in the room. Gibbs shrugged.

"Asleep." Jenny nodded as they sat opposite the others.

"And physically?" She knew pressing him was a sure fire way to get him to shut down but she had to know, both as Ziva's boss and her friend, but mostly in this instance, friend was winning.

"He beat her pretty bad. None of us could stop it. We'd of hit her." Jenny nodded again slowly. "They think she should be fine to come home tomorrow, nothing majorly wrong, but she'll hurt like hell for a few weeks."

"You needn't worry. I'm taking your team out of rotation. With one agent with cracked ribs and another in no fit state to work, it's not worth asking you to work like that." Gibbs sighed.

"I couldn't save Pen either. Didn't even know she was down." Jenny gently took his hand in both of her own.

"Ziva was your priority, as your agent and your girlfriend. It is understandable." If Gibbs was shocked she knew, he was very good at hiding it. "There will have to be an investigation. A civilian in our protective custody gets shot by the person we're protecting her from, it doesn't look good."

"I don't care how it looks Jen." Gibbs voice hardened but didn't get any louder, his agents needed their rest. "My step daughter's dead, leaving behind two kids, and Ziva's beaten half way to hell. I don't care about bureaucracy and politics." Jenny shook her head.

"I know. I will keep everything as far away from you and yours as I can. The only thing I'll need is statements but there isn't a rush on those. You concentrate on your team, let me deal with the bureaucracy and politics." Gibbs nodded before removing his hand from hers and running both his hands through his hair. "It's okay." Gibbs sighed, cradling the crown of his head in both hands.

"When I get her home, when she stops wincing every time I touch her, when she stops damn crying in pain, then it'll be okay." Jenny sighed as she leant into the wall behind her head.

"Try to rest Jethro, she'll need you at your best tomorrow."

Gibbs quietly made his way back into the waiting room just after seven after checking on Ziva and going on the hunt for decent coffee, not the hospitals' poor imitation of. He carefully put a takeaway cup in front of Jenny before going over to his agents. He placed another cup on the chair next to Tony before sitting beside Tim. The young agent had clearly not been awake long but he smiled at his boss and accepted the coffee he gave him before Gibbs put the last one on the floor in front of a still sleeping Lilly.

"Thanks boss." Gibbs nodded. "How's Ziva?" Gibbs sighed.

"Still asleep, black and blue with bruises." Tim shook his head as he gently ran his hand across Lilly's side. "You alright to handle LJ? I'll need to be with Ziva." Tim nodded.

"Course boss. Me and Lilly will go get her discharged in a bit and make sure she gets home safely. Abbs is already there with Ethan so if you need me to come back and pick you up…?" Gibbs shook his head.

"Nah, I'll drive her, Director grabbed my car last night." Tim nodded. Gibbs got up to go back to Ziva's bedside before hesitating and turning back to flash Tim a small smile.

"Thanks Tim." Tim smiled softly.

"No problem boss."

Lilly carefully helped LJ lower herself into the wheelchair while Tim filled out the necessary forms for her discharge.

"So you're McGee's girlfriend huh?" LJ asked quietly. Lilly smiled as she watched Tim at the desk.

"Yeah." LJ smiled gently.

"It's nice to meet you, and yet terrible that we had to meet in such a way." Lilly sighed before crouching before the young girl who had never looked so small.

"I won't lie to you and tell you you'll get over this, because I don't think that's fair, and I also have a feeling you'll see right through it." LJ smiled quickly, half-heartedly. "So I'll simply tell you this. It will get less hard. It will get less painful. You will eventually get to a place where you don't mind carrying it around with you. You have a good family behind you in this team, and they will all love and cherish you forever." LJ's chin trembled and Lilly quickly encased her and held her tight. "It doesn't go away, but it gets better." Tim made his way over and gently laid his hand on Lilly's shoulder, squeezing comfortingly.

"You ready to go kiddo?" He asked as Lilly pulled away. LJ nodded. Lilly slowly pushed LJ through the hospital before both she and Tim helped her into her car and took her home.

Gibbs signed the appropriate forms before returning to Ziva's side.

"You okay?" Ziva nodded slowly.

"Just hurts to breathe." She smiled weakly, Gibbs returned it.

"Yeah, three cracked ribs'll do that." She squeezed his hand. "Come on, let's get ya home. I'll put ya to bed and you can rest."

"We have not even left the hospital and you are already propositioning me?" Gibbs chuckled.

"Glad to see you sense of humour's still in tact." She chuckled before wincing, gently holding her rib cage.

"Ow." It was soft, he wouldn't of heard it if he hadn't been right beside her, but it was still enough to make his heart drop.

"Okay, home." She smiled softly before nodding and Gibbs quickly took her through the corridors before lifting her into the passenger seat and strapping her in, leaving a kiss on her forehead before shutting her door and getting in the other side.

Author's Note-Do I still need to hide or can I come out now?